Micronycteris sanborni is endemic to the Cerrado and the Caatinga, and has been recorded in the Brazilian states of Ceará, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Piauí, Pernambuco, and Tocantins (Simmons 1996, Gregorin et al. 2008, Cunha et al. 2009, Feijó et al. 2010, 2015b, Nogueira et al. 2015, Silva et al. 2015). An alleged record of the species for the Amazon biome has been recently published (López-Baucells et al. 2013), but no voucher specimen supports this claim and the individual that forms the basis of this record lacked the pure white ventral pelage coloration that seems to be characteristic of Micronycteris sanborni (see Simmons 1996, Feijó et al. 2015b). Applying Hitchens’ razor, we dismiss the alleged record for the Amazon biome (contra López-Baucells et al. 2013), a view we share with other authors (see Nogueira et al. 2014b, Feijó et al. 2015b). In addition, as noted by Feijó et al. (2015b), alleged records from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul need to be confirmed. One of the two specimens that formed the basis of these records (see Santos et al. 2010) lacks the pure white ventral pelage coloration typical of confirmed vouchers of Micronycteris sanborni (see above) – and according to Siles et al. (2013) it might actually correspond to Micronycteris yatesi. No information about the morphology of the other specimen has been published (see Cunha et al. 2009).

The red list of the IUCN ver. 3.1 assigned the category “Data Deficient” to Micronycteris sanborni (see Tavares and Aguirre 2008). The species was not included in the official list of threatened species of Brazil (ICMBIO-MMA 2016).